Existing theories of voting in the United States emphasize the role of parties and issues in voter choice. Recent research suggests however, that evaluations of candidates may be more important than issues or party loyalties. The Research Planning Award supports preliminary research to investigate the psychological processes by which voters form images of political candidates. Drawing upon recent research in cognitive psychology the research will attempt to develop a research strategy to investigate the information encoding and retrieval processes by which voters acquire and process information about candidates. Such information has important implications for recent debates about the uses and limitations of political debates, television advertising, the incumbency advantage, and negative campaigning.
